This week I didn't feel great with a bad cold and instead of going out and braving the winter weather, I decided to stay inside, keep warm and finish off the YouTube channel trailer I'd been working on. Last year I dropped my hard-drive and lost all footage from 2017 and early 2018 but I still had loads more available from my iPhone to use. So here it is, the new trailer - I wanted it to give an overview of the channel in 2 minutes. I hope you like it. If you do please give it a thumbs up!!

Once I was back on my feet I started to prepare to make a pizza with the Blue Caputo dough with the following process and ingredients:

The Recipe:

500g blue Caputo flour

310g water

0.5 dried dissolved yeast

10g dissolved table salt

The Process:

45 min pizza dough option in bread machine

24 hour warm room proof

3 day cold proof

4 hour back to room temperature

As seen in the video above, I made a Red Pepper and Prosciutto Pizza. It was really delicious and I did fry the red pepper beforehand. Such a simple and tasty pizza combination. The dough tasted great and had a good consistency. This was also the moment of truth - where I taste tested the cooked dough with the recipe outlined above. I wanted to taste the dough and feel the stretch difference between the 24 hour warm room proof dough I made last week and this dough that had an additional 3 day cold proof. Honestly, I was expecting the difference to be more significant.

The stretch wasn't better, in fact I had more holes in the cold-proofed dough. The taste was slightly better with the cold-proofed dough but nothing much and so if you are in a rush (like me all the time!) then a 24 hour warm room proof is just fine. I'll keep experimenting with this recipe for consistency and report back if I experience any issues with it.

THE PIZZA DOOR!!

A big thing for me this week was that I actually used the pizza door on the pizza oven! I'd received many comments from viewers asking me to cook with the door on (I know they were frustrated with the fact that I kept cooking with the door off!) and so I capitulated and used the pizza door! The only reason why I love cooking with the door off is so that I can see the flames and the pizza cook. It's just more fun for me that way. Anyhow, I totally understand why the oven has a door as it improves the cooking process and reduces the time it takes to cook a pizza from 3-4 minutes with the door off to about 1 - 2 minutes with the door on! I will use the pizza door more often now I promise!

AND ONE MORE THING.......I've decided to build a cob clay pizza oven when the weather gets warmer!

I've done a load of research and I think this is something we can do . I mean what could possibly go wrong?! So that's going to start in the Spring. We will need to build a base with stones and concrete - that's going to be the toughest part I think. Anyhow, we've got lots of planning to do as we want to make sure it'll last a good few years. I'll provide more updates on the delivery of this project - especially sharing plans for the base and location of the oven.

Welcome to my first blog! There is so much coming up in 2019 and this new blog is part of all the new things that I’m really excited about that are happening this year!!

In early 2017 I started making a few videos about places and events to start practising using an iPhone as a video camera. I had never filmed before, never edited or used social media to the extent that I am now so it was a huge learning curve to begin with.

Back then and as I do now, I operate my Got2EatPizza YouTube channel at a loss! And so all the supporting software I use to edit the videos, create thumbnails and graphics etc. have all been made using free software which I list in the description box of all the videos. I will be writing another blog on this very soon. If you are interested in starting a new YouTube channel I’m happy to provide my experience of what I use with no budget or a very limited one and which equipment I use that I already owned to help create videos.

So, back to the pizza! The videos I’ve been creating are a record of my learning journey – learning to make pizza in wood-fired ovens.

I have made many pizza mistakes and burnt more than I can remember but it’s been so much fun to share both the pizza cooks that went well and those that burned out!

From the outset I wanted to share everything. I was and still am learning and if you are new to outdoor cooking and making pizza, things unfortunately are not going to go right all the time. Perfection in my eyes is not a good thing. It creates stress and unhappiness and takes away all the fun of learning!! If there are 2 things that I always don’t mind being when I create videos – they are to be imperfect and unpredictable!

Why do I cook pizza on YouTube? I needed a challenge and the biggest challenge of all was to try to learn and improve.

I am improving and I am having great fun creating, making, baking and cooking pizza and sharing that with you!

So, what am I up to in 2019? Well, firstly I am starting a Blog – this one. My plan is to upload weekly – over the weekend. I will be blogging about my pizza cooks I made for that week – how it went – what went right/wrong etc. I will also be covering other things that I or you feel may be of interest!! And I’ll update with suggestions from the really helpful comments I receive.

And to coincide with the Blogs and this is a big huge learning curve – I will also be starting a PODCAST! The plan for these again – to be uploaded once a week at weekends. This is a new idea and so I will keep you posted on when these will be going up as I am dithering at the moment – I’m not sure which microphone to invest in – should it be a Yeti Blue or a Rode USB microphone? They both come in about the same price.

The other and also very exciting update for 2019 is………I am planning to build/buy a clay/brick pizza oven for the top of the garden. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while but I have so much research to do first. Build or buy? Clay or Brick? Do I try and build it myself to keep the costs down or just not bother doing that and pay the price instead?! I have a lot of research to do for this and so any advice on this and microphones will be warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated!!

I also want to thank you for your fantastic support and amazing advice – your support has helped me to improve my cooking and your patience with me has improved my cooking confidence more than ever – thank you so much!!